the science of keeping fit:fighting venereal disease in world war Ialexandra M. Lord

Keeping Fit, Department of Health and Human Services

In 1917, when the United States entered World War I, mothers and wives wrote to President Wilson asking him to keep their boys and men “clean” and away from moral temptation. Government officials, who knew that war always sparked a rise in diseases in general and venereal disease in particular, shared this concern and just eleven days after war was declared, federal officials established the CTCA or Commission on Training Camp Activities. Charged with providing activities which would prevent the “moral decay of soldiers, the CTCA developed what they called “The American Plan.” While European governments called for the use of medical measures to prevent the spread of venereal disease, the Americans maintained that sex education, combined with wholesome activities, could prevent an epidemic of venereal disease. By emphasizing abstinence, good sex education would provide soldiers and sailors with the necessary tools to control their sexual desires. In the words of one medical officer, “educational measures will eventually prove effective, except in cases of utter depravity which fortunately are rare.” But was depravity really rare and was the American military genuinely prepared to address this issue in their sex education programs?

An early sex education film used by the military provides some insight into the government’s complex views on sexual behavior. Fit to Fight, which was re-titled Fit to Win after the war, told the story of five soldiers and their encounter with several prostitutes. Billy Hale, the film’s hero, firmly refuses to have any contact with these immoral women. Another man, a shy and innocent farm boy, exchanges a kiss with the prostitute before fleeing back to the military camp. The remaining three men, who come from varied social backgrounds, have sex with the prostitutes. Kid McCarthy, a boxer from the wrong side of the tracks, quickly returns to the camp after his encounter. There he immediately seeks out and receives treatment for venereal disease. His two companions in depravity do not bother to receive medical care after they return from the brothel; they and the innocent farm boy who develops a cancerous lesion on his lip from the kiss of a syphilitic prostitute all contract venereal disease. Meanwhile, Billy is teased for his decision to remain chaste. Angered by this teasing, Billy proves his manliness by beating up those who mock his chastity. Deeply impressed, Kid becomes friends with Billy and the two men vow to remain chaste. Fit to Fight reflected several widespread beliefs. First, the film demonstrated that no one was immune to venereal disease and that prostitutes were always diseased. Second, the film sought to prove that manly men could control their sexual desire. Finally, the film argued that those who sinned by consorting with prostitutes could be redeemed--if they recognized the consequences of their sin and took immediate actions to turn away from the sin. Thousands of soldiers and sailors saw these films during the course of the war and the military’s willingness to provide recruits with both the knowledge and the means of preventing the spread of venereal disease indicates that military leaders were well-aware that continence, as they called abstinence, was more an ideal than a realistic goal.

Posters urged men to remember the women back home, Health and Human Services

Simply educating recruits about the dangers of venereal disease would not necessarily prevent men from turning to prostitutes. By the early twentieth century, prostitution, which was tied to poverty, was deeply entrenched in American life and public health experts had long worried that prostitutes spread disease. Knowing that war always sparked a rise in sexual activity, government officials quickly took aggressive actions to control prostitution and, by extension, venereal disease. In the first twelve months of the war, thirty-two states passed laws which required prostitutes, or women whom government officials simply deemed promiscuous, to undergo compulsory testing for venereal disease. In a rare demonstration of state and federal cooperation, the U.S. Department of Justice supported and helped enforce these measures. By the end of the war, more than 18,000 women had been forcibly detained, usually in an institution which received federal funds. Originally, the government sought to detain and then educate these young women on the dangers of sexual promiscuity but reformers and public health experts discovered, often to their dismay, that these young women were far from ignorant. Many of these women were actively and consciously choosing to be sexually active.

The relative brevity of America’s involvement in World War I—just twenty-one months---meant that the government barely had time to develop and implement sex education programs for soldiers, sailors, and women they deemed to be prostitutes before the war was over. Governmental officials, as well as concerned private citizens such as Prince Morrow who headed the American Social Hygiene Association (ASHA), a private organization which promoted better sexual health, had long called for a nationwide sex education program. They now seized the opportunity to transform these wartime programs into what would become a comprehensive and more prolonged war on sexual ignorance. Even before the war had ended, many federal officials began planning a new sex education campaign directed at all civilians.

This sadly damaged poster used war imagery to fight VD.

“The People’s War,” as the sex education campaign that emerged in the wake of World War I was called, was primarily aimed at adolescents. Although the American government knew, through studies conducted by ASHA, that the average American child knew all the “facts of life” by the age of nine, both federal officials and non-governmental public health experts worried that a sex education campaign aimed at younger children would alienate many Americans. Believing that any federally funded sex education campaign would need to be divided by gender, the United States Public Health Service created two campaigns. “Keeping Fit,” which was released first in 1918, was aimed at male adolescents while “Science and Life” was aimed at female adolescents. These campaigns, which were created in partnership with the YMCA, consisted of placards which were placed in workplaces and schools; lantern slides were also available and lecturers crisscrossed the country, presenting the slides and providing a verbal commentary on the content. Ironically, the government’s first belief---that Americans would be horrified by a sex education campaign directed at younger children---proved to be incorrect. Studies and surveys conducted of those who participated in the federal government’s two sex education campaigns revealed that most of the adolescents who viewed “Keeping Fit” and “Science and Life” saw the material as more appropriate for their younger siblings.

But this was not the only problem with this campaign. Although the U.S. Public Health Service routinely and consistently discussed many and very specific measures to prevent a variety of diseases, they were reluctant to follow this approach when discussing sexually transmitted diseases. Moreover, even if they had been prepared to discuss candidly what is today called “safe sex,” the Public Health Service’s partnership with a quasi-religious organization, the YMCA, meant that they advocated “abstinence” as the only way to prevent venereal disease. This early approach--- attempting to balance what public health officials view as “morality” over good public health practices---both shaped, and continues to shape, federally funded sex education, even today. Alexandra M. Lord is the author of Condom Nation: The U.S. Government's Sex Education Campaign from World War I to the Internet. You can also see her on The History Channel's How Sex Changed the World.